Lowering that sugar high

I'm not usually one to make New Year's resolutions, but in January of 2016 I quietly committed to reduce my sugar intake. Fourteen months later, it's time to evaluate how that's going. 

And, well, it's going. 

In one area I've reduced my sugar intake by two teaspoons a day. Unfortunately, I may have inadvertently over-compensated in another area – that alluring realm of sweetened, frozen dairy products. Ever since I stocked up on discounted rocky road, I've noticed my consumption rate increase. And there's definitely a correlation between the amount of ice-cream you have in the freezer and one's daily intake. 

Nevertheless, I did reduce the amount of sugar in my coffee by half (hence the two teaspoons per day). This was not easy. I liken it to gradually building up your resistance to poison by consuming a safe, minuscule portion daily, gradually increasing the dosage over time. Only in reverse. I gradually reduced the amount of poison, if I may call sugar that.

Don't get up in arms. If I really believed this, I'd have to stop being human. Sugar is an integral part of our eating culture, much like salt in ancient times. We can't avoid it anymore than we can avoid texting lol (yes, that's pretty funny, lol). 

But sugar is not as good for us as we once thought. Nutritionists used to say the big killer was fat, not sugar. Some went so far as to encourage eating candy instead of fatty foods, claiming these were empty calories, like eating rice cakes or Styrofoam (pretty much the same thing). Turns out that whole anti-fat fad, if you can call it that, was based on faulty research; a 1958 study linking fat with cardiovascular disease in different countries was conveniently selective in its evidence. New research suggests fat does not create fat any more than Donald Trump speaks truth. It may happen sometimes, but not consistently. Eat enough of anything and your girth will grow. 

And it will grow a lot faster if you load up on sugar and carbs. Carbs aren't inherently bad except that we typically remove all the good things – the bran and wheat germ from grain, for example – so that they aren't so good. 

Oatmeal. Because it's the right thing to do.

The not-so-good carbs are in almost every one of our meals and nearly impossible to remove. Is a dinner without rice, pasta or potatoes really dinner? I think not. Is a sandwich a sandwich without the bread? Just not possible! Everything we eat is a minefield of processed, refined, sugary goodness. It leaves us with nothing but vegetables and boiled eggs. (I guess you don't have to boil them, you can fry them in the fat of bacon if you'd like.) 

Changing habits is no easy task. For myself, it began by reducing the amount of sugar in my coffee. I also no longer drink a whole can of pop at a time (still haven't figured out what to do with the other half). And my 100% natural whole-flake oatmeal has become so full of nutritious garnishes, like walnuts, ground flax, hemp hearts and blueberries, one wonders how it's even possible to digest.     

But I'm doing it, almost every day, and maybe I'm even enjoying it. That's what I keep telling myself. 

The ice-cream helps, too. As with any paradigm shift, it's one small step at a time.